The 1959 Nile Waters Agreement allowed construction of the
High Dam at Aswan and the inundation of large Egyptian and
Sudanese areas on the banks of the Nile which were inhabited by
Nubians and used for agricultural production. On the Sudanese
side, about 50.000 persons living in the Wadi Halfa District had
to be moved to other places. It was decided to use the water of
the Atbara River, a tributary of the Nile, for development of
agricultural lands on which the Halfa people could be resettled
and inhabitants of the area established as resident farmers. A
large plain area of the Butana, about 400 km east of Khartoum.
was chosen for the scheme. In 1964 the transfer of the majority
of the Nubians from Wadi Halfa to the Khashm el Girba Scheme took
place. Around 40.000 people were settled and housed in 25
villages. Each family was entitled to receive 6.3 ha (15 feddans)
of irrigable land under a tenancy agreement. This was a change
from the traditional tenure system at Wadi Halfa but was felt
necessary because of the capital investment involved.

Objectives

a) By opening up nearly 190.000 ha of fertile land for
intensive cultivation under irrigation, followed by investment in
the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy, a new economic
centre in the sparsely populated eastern area of the country was
to be created.
b) The project was to compensate the Nubians from Wadi Halfa by
generous provision of land. housing, and services for the
material and non-material losses they had experienced.
c) The major part of the land was to serve for the settlement of
nomads whose tribes had claims on part of the land used for the
Khashm el Girba Scheme and who lived partly in the neighbourhood
of the scheme. This undertaking would be a step towards solving
the nomad problems of the Sudan and give experience in making
migrant camel- and sheepholders resident farmers.
d) The project was to contribute to an increase in the export
earnings of the country by the production of cotton and
groundnuts. The Sudan was already the world's fifth-largest
cotton exporter and had found good outlets for this produce. Good
markets, particularly international markets, were also expected
for the eventual supply of groundnuts.
e) By producing wheat and sugar, the national economy would
become less dependent on food imports. The Sudan had an import
demand for wheat of about 150,000 tons and for sugar of
120.000-140,000 tons before the Khashm el Girba production was
started. The yearly production of at least 50.000 tons of wheat
and 60,000 tons of sugar in Khashm el Girba would considerably
improve the balance of payments.
f) Sugar was to be produced on a state-owned and -managed sugar
cane plantation, whereas cotton. wheat. and groundnuts were to be
grown by the settlers in a three-crop rotation without fallow on
6.3 ha (15 feddan) farms. The settlers would not be allowed to
cultivate other crops or to feed herds of animals in the scheme.
The only exception would be the freehold land provided
additionally as compensation to Nubians which could be utilized
at the discretion of the owners. The 6.3 ha would be given on a
yearly renewable lease basis to selected applicants from Wadi
Halfa and from the nomadic tribes of the areas near the scheme.
The organization of farming would partly follow the experiences
made in the Gezira Scheme, e.g.. in the supervision of
production, in utilization of farm inputs, and in the marketing
of products.
g) The scheme was to be developed in different phases. Phase I in
1964/65 included, apart from the completion of the sugar factory
and sugar cane plantation, the resettlement of the Wadi Halfa
people. In the subsequent years, three or four phases would
follow with settlement of more nomads and an extension of the
sugar cane plantation.
h) In connection with the agricultural production, some
industries were to be established in the scheme. Sugar cane was
to be processed in one, later on possibly in two, large
factories. The later plans included the construction of cotton
ginneries and wheat flour mills. The electricity produced in the
Khashm el Girba dam was to be used as power for the industries.

3.2.1 Production Problems

The climate of the area is semi-arid with a low annual
rainfall of 200 300 mm during the months June to September.
Rainfall varies considerably from year to year, with the maximum
precipitation in July and August. Temperatures are generally
high; the mean daily temperature is 29°C. with a mean daily
maximum of 41°C in May and a mean daily minimum of 15°C in
January. The relative humidity is highest during the rainy
season, with a mean of 45 per cent in August, and lowest in
April, with a mean of 10 per cent. The project is situated on a
flat plain; the soils are alkaline, dark-coloured, cracking,
heavy clays. The farming pattern in the scheme is influenced by
the experience in Gezira, but in contrast. no fallow is provided
for. Cotton production is the backbone of the economy; the
variety grown is a middle staple, ACALA 4.42. The wheat grown
belongs to two Egyptian varieties, Giza 144 and Giza 155. During
many years the tenants refused to plant groundnuts. but now
greater progress has been made in this respect.

The net areas presently irrigated and the yields recorded from
1964 to 1976 are shown in Tables 7 and 8.

The live storage of the Khashm el Girba reservoir, Originally
1,300 million cubic meters. has decreased at an estimated rate of
50 million cubic meters annually due to sediment deposits. If
this estimate is correct, only 800 million cubic meters of live
storage were left in 1976. To offset this serious situation it is
proposed to build two new embankment dams upstream as a silt trap
and for flow regulation. It is hoped that they will also irrigate
an additional area of land and generate about 80 MWh per year.

TABLE 7. Net Areas: Khashm el Girba Irrigation Scheme

Section

Irrigable
Area
(feddans-n et)

Area
Irrigated
Every Year at Full
Land Utilization
(feddans- net)

AGRICULTURAL
SCHEME

1. Hawasha

A

48 600

48 600

B

52110

52110

1/3 cotton.

C

48 700

48 700

1/3 wheat,

D

58 865

58 865

1/3 groundnuts

E

67 385

67 385

F

5 0

58 20

TOTAL

331 900

331 900a

2. Afforestation approx.

A-F

3 000

3000

3. Research station

A

4. Freehold land

26 000

26 000b

SUBTOTAL

360 900

360 900

SUGAR ESTATE

5. Cane

-

21000

21 000c

6. Fallow

-

14 000

SUBTOTAL

35 000

21000

GRAND TOTAL

395 900

381 900

Source: IBRD. Report on Reconnaissance Mission. p. 7.

a. Including pre-planting irrigation. cotton is irrigated 6
months per year, wheat and groundnuts 5 months per year.
b. Not irrigated during critical periods of water availability.
c. Including pre-planting irrigation, new cane is irrigated for
about 14 months out of 15. Ratoon crops are irrigated about 11 or
12 months out of 12 to 13 months.

Maintaining the canals free of silt deposits and especially of
weeds (it seems that weeds on land as well as in the canals have
become a calamity) is handicapped by a lack of equipment. For the
whole irrigated area of about 400,000 feddans, the maintainance
work is done by nine draglines, three dozers. two graders. and
one comer; this is totally inadequate. Water shortage occurs in
June-July, when the reservoir is empty. and it happens almost
every year from December to February, when only about two thirds
of the requested water is delivered The drainage system has been
completed only on some parts of the scheme, and is non-existent
in others.

The production problems of the scheme can be summarized as
follows.
a) Water shortages definitely occur for one reason or another;
they happen at different times of the year.
b) The conveyance capacity of the canal system is greatly reduced
due to the lack of maintenance.
c) Shortage of irrigation water is one reason why wheat yields
are extremely low since wheat is especially affected by lack of
water during the last two months of its growth.
d) There is no doubt that better drainage would increase cotton
yields. An aggravating circumstance is the frequent absence of
tenants and their lack of interest; water stagnates on the land
because nobody opens the outlets.
e) Land preparation by the Agricultural Corporation was not
carried out in time because of the shortage of equipment and
fuel. For this reason, among others, planting of different crops
was done late, irrigation of crops overlapped, water requirements
were disorganized, peak demand increased, and tenants lost faith
in the Agricultural Corporation.
f) The weeding problem has gotten out of hand, both in the canals
and on land; it has passed the point where it could be controlled
without the use of herbicides. In the past, tenants were
disciplined whenever they did not fulfil their duties, such as
weeding or early planting.

What steps can be taken to obtain reasonable yields, in what
sequence. and which of these steps are likely to be economically
justifiable?

Obviously, average cotton yields of 1.3 to 1.7 metric tons per
ha are by far too low for medium staple cotton growth on
first-class soils after a "learning period'' of 12 years.
The yields for wheat amount to less than half the value obtained
in Egypt for the same variety (Giza 155). The roots of the
difficulties lie deeper than the already-mentioned shortcomings.
For instance, how was the crop rotation cotton-wheat-groundnuts
selected, after teams of consultants had considered 14 crops in
16 different rotations combining a cash crop, a cereal, and a
fodder crop (including legumes)-none of which included the
finally selected composition ? Which crop selection is really
more likely to be both successful and economic, taking into
consideration all aspects such as timing of agricultural
operations, water availability and existing conveyance capacity,
personnel requirements, pest control, aptitude of farmers, etc. ?
If labour availability is presently a difficulty and likely to
become a serious constraint in the future, maybe less
labour-intensive harvesting methods are preferable. Does it make
sense, in view of the existing weed problems, that land is left
fallow for two years instead of growing and cultivating some kind
of cash or fodder crops on it ? What about encouraging tenants to
grow different or additional crops to counteract the weed problem
? A research programme is urgently needed to answer these
questions, depending, of course, on the capacity of the scheme
administration and tenants to implement the results.

Evaluating the 1976/77 agricultural season, the Agricultural
Corporation stated that a number of improvements have been
achieved, especially through a better internal organization: a) A
senior agricultural inspector is now responsible for the
agricultural work in each section as opposed to previous
practice, which gave authority to the specialist in the
headquarters office. b) Priority is given to the field
operations, and inspectors are now involved in all operations
from seed bed preparation up to harvesting. c) Extension work is
also included in the inspector's duties, in addition to the
agricultural committees in the villages.

As a result of these changes, land preparation for cotton, the
main crop, could be done early enough in recent years to allow
cotton sowing during August. This is recommended because of the
three crops in rotation, which means that many farming practices
and operations have to be carried out within short periods of
time, bearing in mind that the last irrigation for cotton should
not be later than midJanuary in order to avoid the season of the
Egyptian bollworm and to minimize the danger of damage by animals
during the picking season.

Mistakes in sowing were due to bad supervision by farmers of
the labourers; the recommended distance between holes was not
observed, holes had been dug by foot instead of using the Jarraya
implement, the number of seeds per hole exceeded the recommended
number. Mistakes in fertilization were observed mainly at the
distribution stage in the field. Resowing has not been practiced,
despite its recognized value, because of the lack of extension
information and the absence of a loan system to tenants for
hiring labourers for this purpose. Thinning is rarely practiced,
with disastrous results on yields and increased pests. Irrigation
is not done properly; 14-day intervals are not observed, and
water-logging is common. The weeding operation is carried out
three times during the growing season, and the farmers are
granted three loans of £S 8, £S 4, and £S 2.5. But three times
is not enough and four times should be introduced, paying loans
of £S 8, £S 7.5, and 2 x £S 5. Green ridging has been done for
only 80 per cent of the rotation because of the limited machinery
and fuel supply. The same fuel shortage limited the spraying
operation by airplane against the white fly. It also led to the
appearance of assail and the abnormal opening of the bolls, which
in turn necessitated an increase in the number of sprayings.

3.2.2 Economic Performance

Being a large public enterprise, the Khashm el Girba scheme
has a refined system of the division of responsibilities, costs.
and incomes between the Agricultural Production Corporation and
the tenants. With respect to cotton production, the influence of
the management is much stronger than on other crops. The
operations are carried out partly by the corporation and partly
by the tenants, who may employ hired labour, as indicated in
Table 9.

To share the net returns of cotton on a 50:50 basis between
tenants and the corporation, a cost-sharing system-a "joint
account" exists. The labour costs proved to be the major
cost item. In rounded figures, Iabour costs for the production of
cotton at one tenant's holding (2.1 ha) showed the distribution
pattern indicated in Table 10.

The result of subtracting the total costs (labour and others)
from the gross returns of the holding for cotton led to a net
revenue in 1967/68 of £S 10 and in 1968/69 of approximately £S
20. The comparison with net returns for wheat of £S 44 and £S
62, respectively. during the same years makes it understandable
that tenants are not so interested in cotton production,
especially if they have to wait for payment very long after
delivery.

These absolute figures have to be used with caution. Paying no
water rate for wheat at all and with mechanized services
available at relatively low prices (subsidized). they show the
private profitability only, not the public profitability. The
calculation did not take into account the contribution of family
labour, which is estimated as one third of the labour costs. The
total cash income per holding could then be valued at £S 81 in
1967/68 and £S 110 in 1968/ 69. But to complicate things even
further it has to be kept in mind that many tenants have
additional income from freehold land outside the scheme and from
other occupations. Little is known about the earlier income
situation of nomad settlers. Having usually kept their livestock
herds only, their income from farming must now be an addition.
leading to a better income position compared with the previous
livestock income alone.

3.2.3 Infrastructure

To provide a high standard of living and particularly good
amenities for the first group of settlers, and to make the Khashm
el Girba Scheme attractive, a relatively dense infrastructure had
to be brought into existence. Twenty-five villages, each
accommodating 250-300 families, were constructed. Each family was
allocated a standard design house costing about £S 2,500. Each
village has retained the name of its former quarters. Living
conditions of the Halfawis are very stable compared to those of
the nomadic Arab villages. The Halfawis have been supplied with
potable water, social and health services, security points,
schools, mosques, market places, flour mills, post and telegraph
services, cinemas, and sports facilities. The villages are linked
by dust-pack roads on which regular local bus lines operate. A
rail track divides the area running from south to north. New
Halfa lies in the centre, and the villages are some five to seven
miles apart.

TABLE 9. Responsibility of the Agricultural Production
Corporation for Farming Operations in the Settlement Scheme

COTTON

WHEAT

Pre-sowing operations

complete

none

Sowing

partial

none

Maintenance and weeding

partial

none

Harvesting

partial

none

Cleaning of fields

partial

none

Provision of seeds

complete

partial

Application of fertilizer

complete

none

Pest control

complete

complete

Watering of fields

partial

partial

Timing of operations

complete

none

Transport of product

partial

none

Selling

complete

none

TABLE 10. Labour Costs in Production of 2.1 Hectares
of Cotton

Cost item

£S

Pre-sowing operations

2.00

Sowing

2.50

Irrigation operations

6.50

Thinning

3.00

Weeding

22.00

Fertiiizer application

2.50

Picking and sack pressing

31.00

Transport

1.00

Pulling and cleaning

3.00

Total labour costs

73.50

There is a large 550-bed hospital in New Halfa, while in the
villages there are six health centres, five outpatient clinics,
and fourteen dressing stations. The Halfawi villages are quite
self-sustaining at the various levels of education, bringing this
area ahead of others in the Sudan. In addition to numerous
primary schools, there are institutes of secondary education and
an agricultural high school.

For the local population (Arab nomads), villages were planned
and constructed in Phases Il-V of the project, but they are lower
in standards when compared with Phase I. After over ten years of
the scheme, the nomads' ties to their allotments have done little
to change their original way of life. They still continue with
their herding and rain-fed cultivation in autumn.

The transport system is ineffective. There are practically no
acceptable roads either inside the scheme or outside. The
vehicles are insufficient. too old to be reliable, there is
little or no maintenance, and fuel shortages are frequent. The
number of tractors in operation has been as low as 50 from 290
received in 1966. In 1977 the situation had improved, but still
there was only one tractor for 150 ha instead of one for 100 ha.
Six large workshops and a warehouse in New Halfa have been
constructed to ease the servicing situation for the equipment.
The previous open-air storage of pesticides, fertilizer, spare
parts. etc.. has changed to covered constructions. keeping losses
lower.

The telephone communication system has largely broken down or
has never been established sufficiently. A request. for instance.
to change the opening of the control gate to the main irrigation
canal at the dam, is passed on by telephone only from MOI
headquarters. But there is no telephone between the eight
sections; messages have to be sent by car. if one is available at
all.

The rate of industrialization of the whole area is impressive,
especially with sugar factories, ginneries, flour mills. etc.
Services. handicrafts, and trades complete the picture of
commercial activities introduced by the scheme. Further expansion
in New Halfa is expected up to a total population of 30,000.

3.2.4 Human Factors and Labour

The tenants are definitely a delicate subject, whether they
are Halfawis or nomads. The whole operation still retains a kind
of welfare flavour; after all, the Nubians were receiving
compensation for their involuntary displacement, and the nomads
were lending themselves to an experiment in sedentarization. Most
of the time, the comments about settlers are from unfavourable to
very unfavourable. The Nubians are called lazy. petty landlords,
absentee landlords, and farming entrepreneurs. The nomads are
accused of being only semi-settled, tending their camels and
cattle outside the scheme at times when they should be working on
their holdings. Both kinds of tenants, for whatever reason,
perform agricultural operations quite offschedule, producing
unjustifiable peaks in water demand and equipment requirements,
making spraying less effective due to the heterogeneity of
growth, and generally reducing the yields. On the other hand, the
scheme management has in the past never assumed a strong position
towards any settlers, no matter how undisciplined they were.
Tenants did not fulfill their duties, such as weeding, and
planted most crops too late. However, no settler was ever
evicted, although legal dispositions had been established which
permitted eviction.

After their evacuation, the Halfawis found themselves faced
with agriculture as their livelihood. However, it was a totally
different kind of agriculture from that which they had practiced
in the "old country." They found themselves on land
scheduled to produce three rotations of crops. Each found himself
with 15 freehold feddans compared to what he had owned in the
past. They were met with legislation specifying dates of planting
and techniques to be adopted and laws that governed the
relationship between production and the State. They found
themselves under different natural conditions as regards
rainfall, soil, and irrigation. They were called upon to
cultivate crops with which they had had no previous experience,
such as cotton and groundnuts. The Halfawis were suddenly called
upon to cultivate several fields, some of which lay at a
considerable distance from the villages, adding to the burdens
involved. There was a shortage of labour. so that some Halfawis
resorted to sharecropping. others leased out their fields. while
some resorted to cooperatives to be able to farm their holdings
collectively. Since most operations were mechanized, there were
numerous difficulties arising out of operating and maintaining
equipment with which the newcomers were totally unfamiliar.

Many Halfawis have professions other than agriculture. Many
are employees, traders, health workers, drivers, and so on.
Despite the ardent retention of his holding, the Halfawi had been
forced into seeking such employment, since the income from his
holding had been-until recently- inadequate. The Halfawis have
begun to establish relations with neighbouring tribes, even
though they still cling to their own customs and traditions.
which they hold to be far superior to those of others. This
interaction between the Halfawis and others is apparent in the
manner in which the co-operatives deal with the local population.
Joint committees and federations such as the Farmers Federation
have been set up. which is an example of the change of feelings
and trends among the Halfawi population. Also, the number of
emigrants from the area has been reduced. This seems to be due to
the employment opportunities available. The absentee percentage
has dropped from the 1967 figure of 40 per cent to 25 per cent.
The birthrate has risen since the first year of migration.

The original inhabitants of the area are people of the El
Butana region. They are nomads from the Beja, Shukriyya, Ahamda,
Rashayda, Khawaida, Bawadra, and Lahwiyin tribes who now, as in
the past, follow their herds through the El Butana pasture lands
in autumn and settle for the summer along the Atbara and in
permanent villages such as Asbry, Ghufla, Dinbar, and others.
They continue. however, to carry out some rain-fed farming in
autumn. One of the counterproductive attributes of the Arab
nomads is that they often return to their fields long after the
dates scheduled for farming operations to begin since they refuse
to be tied down by dates. When they do arrive, they insist on
herding their stock close to the fields and very often place the
interests of their animals over those of the land. This is
evident in the manner in which they allow their cattle to graze
in the fields immediately after the second crop rather than
harvest a third cropping. The population growth is minimal
compared to that in Halfawi villages. Death and infant mortality
rates are high, and disease is prevalent, because they have not
settled down where health services can be extended to them.

The nomads stick to their original area remote from the scheme
because many of the new villages still have no schools, no water
supply. and no health centres. They often think that agricultural
work on the scheme is bad; they have to buy milk and aura. their
main diet, because they are not allowed to keep enough animals
and to cultivate aura. The nomads know two things for sure: (1 )
they must keep their animals as a guarantee against insecure
cultivation, (2) they must continue to cultivate aura on plots
outside the scheme. This brings conflict between the APC,
maximizing the scheme interest (production of cotton). and the
tenants, maximizing their off-scheme interest (animals and aura
production).

Those who mourn the Nubian "laziness" and their
"irrational" behaviour see their traditional culture as
barriers and not as resources for development. The planner often
fails to understand traditional societies and their definition of
the "good life.'' People are seldom allowed to participate
in plan preparation and implementation. If they could, planners
would become aware that there is a subjective rationality in the
peoples' traditional values and institutions and that in every
social system there is an infrastructure of incentives and
restrictions.

An agriculture ridden by problems such as those outlined above
forces tenants to pursue other interests. The Nubians have
experience of a different kind of agriculture at Old Halfa and as
urban labourers. This knowledge does not help very much, because
soil and crops are different and the scheme is strongly
mechanized. The tenancies are about 5 km away from the village, a
fact that prohibits use of family labour to any extent. The women
have to take care of their children, transport is difficult, and
they also fear members of other ethnic groups. particularly the
Beja tribes. The tenants are frustrated by the low returns of
cotton. because all costs of the scheme are subtracted from
cotton income alone. Therefore. wheat is preferred in
cultivation; groundnuts are neglected because heavy soils make
digging difficult and require washing of the crop. The tenant
therefore develops his freehold land, which is closer to the
village, cultivating vegetables for subsistence. Yields in the
scheme are affected by a number of factors. many of which are not
controlled by the tenants themselves but are influenced by the
Agricultural Corporation.

The labour shortage is chronic. The period of picking is the
most critical one so that the corporation is trying to provide
additional labour and all other facilities needed, such as
supervision, improvement of the operation and transportation. All
the cotton area is usually planted at the same time. which
implies the simultaneous opening of the bolls within a short
period. For the season 1976/77 the management of the scheme
suggested that at least 110,000 labourers should be provided:
40,000 from farmers and families, 70.000 from outside the scheme.
Three committees were responsible for the recruiting along the
East Atbara River. in the western area, and in the northern and
southern regions. But the total number of registered labourers
reached only 17,131. This figure was very low compared with the
requirements. Some reasons are given as follows:
a) Tribal heads exaggerate the number of people in their tribes.
b) The majority of labourers prefer to work in certain blocks
because of distance. working conditions. ethnic relationships,
etc. This leads to very bad distribution of the labour.
c) Competition for labour exists with the Gezira Scheme in the
Kassala Province and especially with the Rahad Scheme.

Seasonal labour in 1975/76 earned about 30 piastres per day
plus food, or roughly two thirds of the urban minimum wage.
Evidence shows that migration for seasonal employment depends
upon the level of income in the sending area, or rather the
difference in earnings between the sending and receiving areas.
and not on the degree of under-employment in traditional
agriculture. The ILO report on "Growth, Employment, and
Equity" (1976) raises the question of whether it would be
cheaper to increase the supply of seasonal labour by subsidizing
transport to the scheme than to try to solve the problem of
labour shortage by mechanizing certain agricultural operations
now carried out by hand. The migrant population consists of four
groups:
1 ) a small group of males who have finally obtained a plot of
land for themselves or a job in one of the smaller towns;
2) men and women who have established certain links and go back
to the same tenant year after year; they come from as far as
Chad, Central West Africa, and northern Nigeria;
3) a group of males, possibly one third of the total migrant
population, who are maximizing their earnings over a short time
period and are, therefore. highly mobile: they drift around and
after two or three years. they have saved enough money to return,
possibly never to migrate again;
4) another one third of the migrants, women and men, return home
as soon as the cotton is harvested.

Conclusions

The Khashm el Girba Scheme reached its objective to settle
50,000 persons, Nubians and nomads. The envisaged cultivation of
nearly 190,000 ha was accomplished. but the expected yields of
cotton, groundnuts, and wheat did not materialize. The total cash
income per holding did not exceed in the average £S 100 per
annum. A number of shortcomings. technical. organizational,
social, and individual, led to an unsatisfactory economic
performance compared with the total capital investment provided
by the national economy. But from the standpoint of project
participants, the scheme may still be called successful. The
Nubians needed a new homeland: they got it. The nomads looked for
additional income and food security: it was provided for. The
mixture of activities undertaken by the scheme's tenants,
including offfarm jobs. makes for a much more secure, flexible,
and diverse livelihood than the tenants had before. Some major
lessons to learn for planners are: to listen to the local people
even at the planning stage, to organize the production process
with the priority of securing the food requirements of the
people, and to choose appropriate technologies which the tenants
are capable of handling.